Downloading the first episode of Daredevil. Don't have Netflix for the same reason I don't have HBO, Showtime, and the like. Read some reactions of the first five episodes, they've been pretty positive. And considering the reactions were on the internet hate machine, that's saying something. Or I'm being lied to and it's horrible. Either way, I'll see tonight.

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George Carlin wrote:

I think it’s the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately.

I'm 4 episodes into Daredevil & its pretty great. I'd say its closer to "R" rated than PG13, but it isn't trying too hard like the Powers TV show. There isn't a single thing thats happened thus far that I would consider "bad", although I have a hard time seeing the actor playing Foggy as anything other than Seth Green's dumb headless zombie bro from "Idle Hands". While his origin is covered via flashbacks in the first couple of episodes, little time is spent actually explaining his powers other than his other senses are enhanced (mostly hearing). The fight scenes are well done & brutal (especially a long cut during the 3rd or 4th episode).

Again, I have nothing bad to say about it & not just because I'm a Marvel fanboy. Its been fantastic so far & I can't wait to get to the rest!

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"The Rich are there to take all of the money & pay none of the taxes, the middle class is there to do all the work and pay all the taxes, and the poor are there to scare the crap out of the middle class." -George Carlin

Just started episode 4 myself. Have it paused after finishing 3 and just hadn't hit play yet.

I'm liking it so far. It kind of refreshing, but frustrating at the same time, to see a super hero on the brink of losing his battles so often. It's a bit of a contrast from say... Batman or Spiderman out on the streets fighting gang members and bank robbers, neither of which ever really pose a threat to them. Here the superhero has spent the first three episodes on the brink of death. They tie it all in to the earlier flashbacks about his childhood that way too.

And apparently Ms. Page doesn't have nipples. Yes, I paused it. And it was either removed or covered.

Part of me wants Murdock, Page, and Foggy to be involved in a little more blind-person comedy... I liked the Page/Foggy scenes out on the town.

There isn't a single thing thats happened thus far that I would consider "bad", although I have a hard time seeing the actor playing Foggy as anything other than Seth Green's dumb headless zombie bro from "Idle Hands".

Holy crap that's what he's from! It's been driving me nuts. I knew I recognized him from something, but for the life of me I couldn't place it and wasn't interested in it long enough to do an actual look up.

I just watched the first episode (slowly, over the course of three hours ...). It has a very Miller vibe, which is great. There's already plenty of bright comedy action in the MCU, seeing a darker, more brutal take on the universe is a nice contrast. Lots of rain, dark shadows, brooding, and a touch of Catholicism. I'd say the action and tone is also a decent departure from the normal MCU fare, a kind of a mix of Arrow and NolanBat. Nicely choreographed fight scenes, but less "super" than Winter Soldier. It's a good mix.

I'm not really loving the Errol Flynn inspired costume. I like it, just don't love it. Kind of like most of Captain America's costumes. I don't think the Red Devil costume (or my favorite, the yellow, red, and black "blind guy" costume) would fit the story either, but this one is a little too swashbuckly for me. If he were bantering during the fights maybe, but then that would be a bit out of place. It's a minor personal nitpick and not an actual issue.

I wish I could marathon it, but this weekend has me swamped and even now I'm just taking a short recess. Good show, and even after seeing one episode I'm already disappointed that it's so short. Hope they make more Daredevil.

____________________________

George Carlin wrote:

I think it’s the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately.

"The Rich are there to take all of the money & pay none of the taxes, the middle class is there to do all the work and pay all the taxes, and the poor are there to scare the crap out of the middle class." -George Carlin

I finished up the first season. Enjoyed it, but I think I missed something.

Spoilers from... Episode 7 I think. Did they ever explain the Asian kid? The... "Black Sky" I think it was. If they did, I missed it. I remember Murdock's Mentor killing him, and then the Japanese being very upset with Fisk that the Black Sky was gone, something about how it was a very unique, rare, thing... And them having him chained up inside the container...

"The Rich are there to take all of the money & pay none of the taxes, the middle class is there to do all the work and pay all the taxes, and the poor are there to scare the crap out of the middle class." -George Carlin

Almost through with Daredevil. What a ride! My expectations were high but they were all met. The cast throughout does a great job, especially D'Onofrio. The fights are fast and brutal. That tracking shot (I hope that's the right term) at the end of episode 2 was intense as ****. The occasional funny moments work, too. Reminded me a bit of the Batman movies by Nolan, which were very dark but always had time for some humour.

The Ant-Man trailer is way better than the first one. I really want to see the fights with Yellowjacket on the big screen now.

Could not place Olivia Munn in anything I've seen and was surprised to find out she'd been in Iron Man 2. From her looks alone she is a great choice for Psylocke.

I won't try to do any specific spoilers, but possible plot spoilers below.

Overall, I liked it a lot. However, I felt at the end that as soon as he took of the black mask & put on the suit, the show became a bit...cheesy. You saw a little of this in the fight with Nobu, with the slow mo stuff, flipping around, & posing but I took that as them trying to convey that this was a super-human battle. The coolest parts of the fight scenes before the red suit were just how brutal & somewhat realistic they seemed, then they put him in the red suit & it becomes all flipping around & 3 point stances.

This doesn't ruin the overall show, which was generally excellent all around, but it makes me think DD may be a bit more cheesy than badass when he shows up in Defenders.

Random thoughts & real spoilers below:

Pretty good use of Melvin Potter/Gladiator, directly from the Miller Born Again arc. He was a little more...retarded than in the comics, but that's ok.

I'm ****** they killed Urich. i should have known they would when they cast a black actor to play him, sigh. He was pretty amazing in the roll, stinks that we won't see him anywhere else in the MCU.

I'm also ****** they killed Wesley. He was great.

I'm less ****** they killed Owlsly, but would have liked to have seen the Owl down the road.

Young Matt/Foggy flashbacks were the best flashbacks.

Loved the Kingpin. This is pretty much the best Kingpin they could have done.

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"The Rich are there to take all of the money & pay none of the taxes, the middle class is there to do all the work and pay all the taxes, and the poor are there to scare the crap out of the middle class." -George Carlin

That would be Yellowjacket, and for all intense porpoises of the movieverse we'll just call it the Warmachine of the miniarmors. The next generation of Ant-Man armors that was militarized. As far as comics, Hank Pym has severe identity issues and has had probably the most name changes in Marvel.

Yes, I know it isn't intense porpoises.

____________________________

George Carlin wrote:

I think it’s the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately.

Edit of Steel: Full trailer has been leaked, though in true form Warner Brothers is going out of it's way to cut every upload on youtube down. So have a picture instead that kind of describes one of the scenes. I managed to download it, and it's just not my thing.

Edited, Apr 17th 2015 11:08am by lolgaxe

____________________________

George Carlin wrote:

I think it’s the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately.

"The Rich are there to take all of the money & pay none of the taxes, the middle class is there to do all the work and pay all the taxes, and the poor are there to scare the crap out of the middle class." -George Carlin

Quick Observation: It was, what, two weeks ago when I mentioned how I hadn't seen any actual commercials for Avengers outside the many youtube videos? Yeah, now it's pretty much all I see. They really need to spread this practice out.

Marvelous Edit-ion: Nicole Perlman and Meg LeFauve to both write the Captain Marvel movie. First step so pretty inconsequential news, and it's not like writers aren't changed so who knows.

Edited, Apr 20th 2015 3:29pm by lolgaxe

____________________________

George Carlin wrote:

I think it’s the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately.

Daredevil season two confirmed, which is good. New showrunners, which might be a thing of concern. Might in the sense that the first season's team was pretty solid, so any change should be at least a concern in my opinion. Radar Edit-ion: Turns out that the new showrunners all worked on the first season, and did the Stick episode, which was like the best one.

Just came home from a 3D screening of Age of Ultron. Wow! Incredible action, the typical Whedon humor (and tons of it) and way more character development than I ever expected. Also, cameos. Cameos everywhere.

Although they did leave two huge loose ends from previous movies still dangling if I didn't miss something. Hawkeyes whereabouts during Winter Soldier were not explained and we still have no answer as to what happened with Betty Ross. I was hoping to finally get an answer to that since Banner got so much screentime, but still nothing.

Due to the wonders of the internet, a very watchable cam copy may be available. I'm still going to see it in the theater, big screen, better sound, maybe even some 3D. I'll refrain from discussing any details until next week though. The only thing I'll mention now, Hawkeye has the best line in the movie when he's explaining the situation to Scarlet Witch.

That's barely a spoiler, it has no real impact on the story, but some people don't want to know anything, so I hid it.

Disney expected the foreign release to open to a roughly $160m to $170m weekend. Apparently they hit $200m. Not bad, and hasn't even be released in (I believe) China yet, and the domestic numbers will most likely be another $200m. Not really saying anything about the quality, and I'm avoiding all reviews, but at the very least the franchise'll be going for years to come and hopefully convince them to take bigger risks.

I felt the Avengers tie in at the end of the Shield episode was a bit hamfisted.

Raina doing the whole "metal men" thing. Meh.

But, I haven't paid too much attention to the movie spoilers or leaks, only watching the trailers. So I'm not sure if I'm supposed to expect The piece of Loki's staff to be an important plot point of Age of Ultron. Is Ultron hunting it down as well?

So I'm not sure if I'm supposed to expect The piece of Loki's staff to be an important plot point of Age of Ultron. Is Ultron hunting it down as well?

Dunno about Ultron, at least until tomorrow night, but the staff was a pretty central part of the first Avengers movie. I don't think it's much of a spoiler to say at this point that it's one of the Infinity Stones,presumably the Mind Stone. So, pretty important in the grand scheme of things.

____________________________

George Carlin wrote:

I think it’s the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately.

I probably won't see it until Saturday early afternoon. I could probably go Thursday night, I think the first showing is 7pm according to my local theater's website. But I don't like the idea of rushing home after work to get to the theater. Saturday would be more relaxing.

Friday would be better since I have that day off but family members I would go with do not have it off.

Edit: So it turns out my mother is graduating from college on Friday. So that rules out Friday as a view date.

Have some more 80s Jubilee. I admit I tend to be wary of all things Fox X-Men related, but I also have to admit that Days of Future Past was an amusing ride, though not sure I'd say I would have paid to see it in theaters. This 80s era film looks to be hitting marks that pique my interest quite a bit. I can't say I am going to see it in theaters, but unlike the last few X-Men films I honestly feel that I possibly might.

Edited, Apr 30th 2015 2:12pm by lolgaxe

____________________________

George Carlin wrote:

I think it’s the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately.

Age of Ultron Weekend Box Office puts it at a little over $191m, missing the projected $220m by a little. Still the second best opening weekend for a movie (overall it's raked in over $630m lifetime), behind the first Avengers movie. Most people blame the big sports weekend, what with basketball playoffs, boxing matches, that thing on ice with the sticks, and something with horses, there's a dedicated group calling this a sign that it was the worst movie ever. Also, Joss Whedon was chased off Twitter. Vocal group blames 4chan, as usual, and not all the people that were on Twitter the last few days accusing him of hating women over Black Widow scenes. Not much in actual news, but it did put me in a humor.

I don't think it has been mentioned yet, William Hurt is coming back as General Ross in Civil War (source). Making him the first actor from Incredible Hulk to appear in another MCU movie (Stan Lees cameos aside). I hope they drop at least half a sentence explaining what's up with Betty. And the Leader.

I am surprised to see Galavant. I didn't think it did that well when I watched it.

I know I was caught up on Weird Al hype and ended up disappointed. The music was kind of catchy but not really enough for a show. Or a second season of a show anyway.

Yeah. Galavant was kinda funny and weird starting out, then as the episodes progressed it just got more and more dumb. Dunno. Just didn't do it for me at all. Seemed like they were trying to hard to do the whacky humor thing and fell flat most of the time.

I'm somewhat disappointed that they cancelled Forever. I'd heard mid season that it was on the chopping block, but its ratings were not "bad", and had maintained at a decent level rather than slipping (I think they actually went up towards the end). I liked the premise, and given the nature of the show (It's not super expensive to produce what's basically a crime drama show), medium level ratings should have been sufficient to get a second season.